CNBC Television
CNBC Television
@CNBCtelevision·3.4M subscribers·157.5K videos

How The U.S. Avoided A Recession For A Decade

Posted

December 19, 2019

Views

675,515

Likes

8,310

Comments

1,683

Engagement

1.48%

Search the Record

Indexed

Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.

Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.

Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line

YouTube Description

as posted by the channel

For the first time ever, the U.S. economy started and ended an entire decade without entering a recession. It's been the longest expansion in the country's history, taking place during a decade marked by the memory of the Great Recession and unprecedented access to information about the state of the economy. But overall economic growth during this decade has been slower compared to previous booms.

There's a saying among economists that "expansions don't die of old age."

In the case of the American economy over the past decade, it rings true.

As of December, the U.S. economy has expanded for a record 126 straight months, the longest time period in the country's history according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. Put another way, the U.S. has avoided a recession for an entire calendar decade for the first time ever.

"It is unusual that this has been such a persistent recovery," Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told CNBC.

Economists cite a few reasons for why the expansion has lasted for so long. For one, the U.S. was coming from a low point at the end of the last decade. Much of the expansion over the past ten years has been spent recovering from the Great Recession.

"It's almost hard to imagine how awful that time was," said David Wilcox, former director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board and a current senior fellow at the Peterson Institute.

Job growth, for example, has recovered more slowly than in previous economic booms, in part because unemployment was so high during the financial crisis. As some economists have said, the deeper the hole, the longer it takes to climb out.

» Subscribe to CNBC

» Subscribe to CNBC TV

» Subscribe to CNBC Classic

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online

Get the latest news

Follow CNBC on LinkedIn

Follow CNBC News on Facebook

Follow CNBC News on Twitter

Follow CNBC News on Instagram

#CNBC

How The U.S. Avoided A Recession For A Decade

Guests & Subjects Covered

Great RecessionNational BureauEconomic Research PutMichelle MeyerAmerica Merrill LynchCNBC EconomistsGreat Recession It'sDavid Wilcox

Sentinel Indexing in Progress

Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.

All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.